What does the cerebrum part of the brain do?
The cerebrum — which is just Latin for “brain” — is the newest (evolutionarily) and largest part of the brain as a whole. It is here that things like perception, imagination, thought, judgment, and decision occur. Many people refer to it as the cerebrum; however, it is technically referred to as the telencephalon. The surface of the cerebrum — the cerebral cortex — is composed of six thin layers of neurons, which sit on top of a large collection of white matter pathways. The cortex is heavily convoluted, so that if you were to spread it out, it would actually take up about 2 1/2 square feet (2500 sq cm). It includes about 10 billion neurons, with about 50 trillion synapses! The convolutions have “ridges” which are called gyri (singular: gyrus), and “valleys” which are called sulci (singular: sulcus). Some of the sulci are quite pronounced and long, and serve as convenient boundaries between four areas of the cerebrum called lobes. The furthest forward is the frontal lobe (from the
